Del Piero pulling power proves guest stints not just stunts

Craig Foster

Whether indeed ''Golden Balls'' David Beckham was, is, or ever might be interested in coming to the A-League, the issue of guest players is an interesting and evolving one.

Apparently, as is the way in football, Beckham's ''people'' contacted FFA's ''people'' about the possibility of a guest stint in the new year, who promptly shouted about how this reinforces the international credibility of the league, big names wanting to come here and all.

Bit embarrassing if it turns out to be an agent trying to concoct a move without the player knowing anything about it. Always a good idea to steer away from the credibility angle as well, if there is genuine interest this is implied, if not, it tends to detract.

Anyway, putting aside the he said, she said for now, given the extraordinary impact of Alessandro Del Piero, who had another sumptuous game on Friday night to single-handedly haul Sydney if not back into, at least into the postcode of the contest against the Roar, we can expect agents to be touting every big name for either long-term deals, or guest stints.

Advertisement

It is, therefore, a live issue.

The question is what value do guest stints of 10 games or less offer, and whether the competition should still have them. On balance, the answer is yes. For now. And the man that has cemented this view is ADP. No one could have predicted the impact the Italian has had on the Sydney crowd, the competition, and other clubs. Look at the Brisbane Roar, sitting bottom come Friday night, their largest crowd of the season at almost 23,000 turned up, unquestionably many to see the legend in action. And they went away with perfect memories of a fantastic performance of vision and quality by ADP, a superb match all round and the three points to kick-start their season.

The commercial effects of the move are quantifiable, obvious and far reaching. Given this, provided the player is of high enough quality and attractive enough to the market, it makes commercial sense to bring such big names for short stints to increase awareness of the competition domestically, provide greater traction for the broadcasters, put bums on seats and drive crowds higher across the league, a virtuous cycle. As crowds grow and more people discover the fascinations of the game, so too does atmosphere, which more people want to be a part of, which drives crowds higher.

But the time will come when guest players are passé´, and this is related to the tactical quality of the teams themselves. Sydney FC are a clear example of a team that would lose nothing and gain plenty with another high-quality, even short-term player, because they are still in the building phase. The Roar, by contrast, are at a far higher level and play to a prescribed set of movement patterns, built over months and years, making the integration of a new player far harder than at other clubs.

Imagine coming into a team where all the players understand intuitively where they should be, where the ball should go according to the position on the field and moment in the game, how to move together such that one must always be checking the position of the others in proximity, and there is an underlying plan for every moment of the game that is trained and honed every day, every week, every month until it becomes automatic.

In fact, a good sign of a high-quality team is the difficulty even top-class players would have stepping into it and being able to move and play in sync. This is a phenomenon I expect to increasingly see, extending to our national teams. Once the national curriculum is fully fleshed out and we develop players according to a certain vision of the game, they will inhabit the national shirts with ease and play smoothly together and this is the only way we can possibly compete at the top level.

As a country club, so to speak.

We have already seen this at youth level, where some national coaches are reporting that local players are becoming schooled in a style of play and the precise movement patterns yet others, based overseas, despite often being more individually talented, are having difficulty integrating into the system. This should happen more and more, and is an excellent sign of progress as a developmental nation. The same will ultimately occur at professional level where, in time, coaches will be less inclined to accept short-term guest stints because despite the individual quality, this can actually detract from the team as a single organism that thinks together, moves together and where each knows the intentions of the others at all times.

Guest players are largely a commercial and marketing tool that drives interest in the club and league and, as everyone's favourite Italian has shown, this interest is like oxygen for a league seeking to take the next step to sustainability and stability.

Becks would be a tremendous addition to the league's visibility and commercial value and add quality to many of the teams, but there'll come a time when short-term guest players are no longer of use, and that'll be a milestone to be celebrated.